Thanks to all for the help ... I checked out settings->control panel->folder options->file types and there was clearly some sort of problem. The Perl icon showed a wrong description and the buttons were greyed out, so I created a new one as per the faq link from simonflk. Now, when I do perl -e "print qq(@ARGV)" Foo bar baz I get Foo bar baz, but the original problem remains -- my scripts that use @ARGV are broken, but the ones that don't still work fine. If the problem was just with the file association, then am I right in thinking that *all* my scripts would have been broken, not just the ones using @ARGV? Any further advice much appreciated!

<Cheers, mooseboy

If the problem was just with the file association, then am I right in thinking that *all* my scripts would have been broken, not just the ones using @ARGV? Any further advice much appreciated!

No, only the programs that use @ARGV would suffer. Assuming the problem is that your file association says "when you run script.pl, execute 'perl <scriptname>'". That means that if you type:

c:\> script.pl foo bar baz
[download]

What gets run is actually

perl script.pl
[download]

So if a program doesn't use @ARGV, it doesn't care it's being omitted.

Does that make sense?

-- Dan

Does that make sense?

Yes, thanks for the explanation! Hey, I just noticed today's date ... shoulda stayed at home ;-)

Please to show us what the file association says for a PL file. Mine shows

"E:\Perl\bin\perl.exe" "%1" %*
[download]

Also have you rebooted? I know it _shouldnt_ be required. But this is windows after all....

--- demerphq
my friends call me, usually because I'm late....

Monks, enlightenment just dawned -- and what a relief it is with 5 mins to go before the weekend! The file assocation for .pl in fact said:

"C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe" "%1"

so I just added the %* at the end as per the suggestions and now all my scripts work fine again! Many thanks to all who took the time to answer; ++votes from me to y'all.

Cheers, mooseboy